Planning Design Goals

                 

 
Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
By Robert Ferguson

Table of Contents
Chapter 1.  Introducing SharePoint


The SharePoint Portal Server team relies on three key design goals during the development of this new addition to the Microsoft BackOffice family that would allow users to easily find, share, and publish information.

Specifically, the SharePoint Portal Server's development team design goals are

  1. Create easy access to business-critical information

  2. Create the premier document management application for Office users

  3. Create the best place to organize and communicate around projects

The following sections provide additional details about the design goals.

Create Easy Access to Business-Critical Information

The first design goal for SharePoint Portal Server is to create easy access to business-critical information. Many companies of all sizes have the problem of inheriting extensive amounts of corporate information, and they need to make this information available to knowledge workers through Web sites, Exchange public folders, Lotus Notes databases, documents, presentations, and so on. The challenge to the development team was to figure out how to allow end users to obtain the full benefit of all organization information, while making sure it is easy to locate. The answer was the portal dashboard, made up of Web Parts that could be easily custom-tailored to meet your needs using the Microsoft Office Developer's Kit or the SharePoint Portal Server SDK, which is located at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/doanloads/tools/sdk.asp.

NOTE

A Web Part is a reusable component that contains Web-based content. SharePoint enables administrators to assemble various Web Parts to make up a digital dashboard framework. Several Web Parts are shipped with SharePoint Portal Server, and custom Web Parts can be developed.


To learn more dashboards, see " Dashboard Overview," p. 42.

The digital Dashboard technology is used within SharePoint Portal Server to display and manage end user data.

This concept of centralized content and end user data based on the Web Storage System can be integrated with SQL Server and other key information sources. To speed the development of applications, application developers can build on this set of core services. SharePoint Portal Server allows end users to centralize desired content from within the organization as well as from external data sources into one single portal. If necessary, SharePoint Portal Server allows users to utilize a "subscription" feature to be notified when desired documents, content, and topics are made available. A feature called "best bets" can be used to assist end users with targeted searches to ensure that when searches are made, the most relevant material is retrieved as a result.

To learn more about Web Storage System, see "Web Storage System," p. 400.

Create the Premier Document Management Application for Office

SharePoint Portal Server integration with Microsoft Office programs is essential, considering that most end users today spend a tremendous amount of time working with Office. A key integration point is to allow the document management functionality to be enabled through both Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. Now end users can use one software application to create as well as manage their documents.

With SharePoint Portal Server, end users can easily create, review, and publish documents. This is done through the core set of services such as check in, check out, versioning, and document profiling. During the document creation lifecycle, SharePoint Portal Server allows granular security and access control. Once the document is created, an approval process can be automatically initiated, and once approved, the document can be published to the desired final destination.

SharePoint Portal Server utilizes a document profile feature to classify documents using a common process. This concept of a document profile is essential to provide the details that are required so end users can find key information that is stored throughout the enterprise, regardless of its location. The document profile information becomes the essential metadata that is associated with the document.

Organizing Information

SharePoint Portal Server was designed to take advantage of the features and benefits of Microsoft Office. Users of SharePoint Portal Server can have administrators build departmental portal sites that are logically linked as a single enterprise portal solution.

SharePoint Portal Server can be used to create high-performance native Web applications based on your specific business needs. Data is accessed by using Extensible Markup Language (XML) support, which enables developers to leverage existing skills sets.

To learn more about XML, see "XML and XSL," p. 428.


                 
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Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
ISBN: 0789725703
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 286

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